Weekly Wrap 4.17.15: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week | Sojourners

Weekly Wrap 4.17.15: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week

1. A Newsfeed of Fear: News, Social Change, and Resisting #FeedFear

When clickbait lures and controversy sells, what does it mean to read with the Bible in one hand and our newsfeeds in the other? Our series explores a question from the May issue of Sojourners: How do we unlearn our own attraction to scandal and sensationalism while still working for social change? 

2. Chef Invokes RFRA After Being Ticketed for Feeding Homeless in San Antonio

A Texas chef is using the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act in what might be the best possible way. Joan Cheever, whose nonprofit The Chow Train has worked to feed San Antonio homeless for the past 10 years, faces a $2,000 fine for not having an up-to-date permit during a recent stop in the city’s Maverick Park. Her defense? The state’s RFRA, which protects the free exercise of religion.

3. TIME Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People List: Our Highlights

There are a lot of interesting picks this year, and all are worth a read. But a few are worth a Sojo highlight, including: HeForShe campaign lead, outspoken feminist, and actress Emma Watson (written by Jill Abramson); criminal justice reform advocate and head of the Equal Justice Initiative Bryan Stevenson (written by Serena Williams); head of Mary’s Meals, which soon will be feeding 1 million schoolchildren across 12 countries, Magnus McFarlane-Barrow (written by Gordon Brown); and Afghanistan’s first lady, a Christian born and raised in Lebanon, who has vowed to improve living standards for the country’s women, Rula Ghani (written by Khaled Hosseini).

4. NYC to Acknowledge It Operated a Slave Market for More Than 50 Years

The historical marker is set to be unveiled on Wall Street on Juneteenth (June 19). “It will be the city's first acknowledgement on a sign designed for public reading that in the 1700s New York had an official location for buying, selling, and renting human beings.”

5. How Rachel Held Evans Became the Most Polarizing Woman in Evangelicalism

“I know that there’s a lot of people who feel like, ‘Well who is she? She didn’t go to seminary, she hasn’t cut her teeth as a pastor,’” Evans said. “I think some people feel like it’s a little bit of a threat to authority, that somebody can just be a blogger, and people will listen to what they say.”

6. Why Women Aren’t Having Children

The Atlantic highlights a new series of essays, Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed, explaining the 16 writers’ reasons for not having children. According to the writer of the piece, the stories “not only dismantle the he assumption of selfishness, they shed light on a stigma that’s remained stubbornly pervasive well into the 21st century, even as other formerly taboo lifestyles have become thoroughly mainstream.”

7. Boston Bombing Trial: 8-Year-Old Victim’s Parents Urge Against Death Penalty

In a Boston Globe op-ed, Martin Richard’s parents argue, "to end the anguish, drop the penalty."

8. What Really Hurts the Church’s Witness

“But what really hurts the Church’s witness the most is not our narrative inconsistency or our public feuding or even our unholy efforts to protect the powerful and keep secrets hidden behind closed doors. …What really hurts the Church’s witness the most isn’t our digital debating and public infighting. It’s the way we live our lives.”

9. Drone Strikes in Yemen Said to Set a Dangerous Precedent

An Open Society Justice Initiative study released Monday indicates that “the Obama administration has not followed its own rules to avoid civilian casualties and is setting a dangerous example for other countries that want to use unmanned aircraft against terrorists.”

10. Watch: ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Trailer Lands

Because it’s Friday and we can’t not share it.